Rex Regvm - faction preview AoD2
Rex Regvm
The kingdom of the "king of kings" - the Sassanid Empire
Second Golden Era (498–622)
The Sassanid Empire in 500 AD. Map also shows borders of Hephthalite Khanate and the Eastern Roman Empire.
Hunting scene on a gilded silver bowl showing king Khosrau IThe second golden era began after the second reign of Kavadh I. With the support of the Hephtalites, Kavadh I launched a campaign against the Romans. In 502, he took Theodosiopolis (Erzurum) in Modern Turkey, but lost it soon afterwards. In 503 he took Amida (Diarbekr) on the Tigris. In 504, an invasion of Armenia by the western Huns from the Caucasus led to an armistice, the return of Amida to Roman control and a peace treaty in 506. In 521/2 Kavadh lost control of Lazica, whose rulers switched their allegiance to the Romans; an attempt by the Iberians in 524/5 to do likewise triggered a war between Rome and Persia. In 527 a Roman offensive against Nisibis was repulsed and Roman efforts to fortify positions near the frontier were thwarted. In 530, Kavadh sent an army under Firouz the Mirranes to attack the important Roman frontier city of Dara. The army was met by the Roman general Belisarius, and though superior in numbers, was defeated at the Battle of Dara. In the same year, a second Persian army under Mihr-Mihroe was defeated at Satala by Roman forces under Sittas and Dorotheus, but in 531 a Persian army accompanied by a Lakhmid contingent under al-Mundhir IV defeated Belisarius at the Battle of Callinicum, and in 532 an "eternal" peace was concluded.[34] Although he could not free himself from the yoke of the Ephthalites, Kavadh succeeded in restoring order in the interior and fought with general success against the Eastern Romans, founded several cities, some of which were named after him, and began to regulate the taxation and internal administration.
After Kavadh I, his son Khosrau I, also known as Anushirvan ("with the immortal soul"; ruled 531–579), ascended to the throne. He is the most celebrated of the Sassanid rulers. Khosrau I is most famous for his reforms in the aging governing body of Sassanids. In his reforms he introduced a rational system of taxation, based upon a survey of landed possessions, which his father had begun and tried in every way to increase the welfare and the revenues of his empire. Previous great feudal lords fielded their own military equipment, followers and retainers. Khosrau I developed a new force of dehkans or "knights" paid and equipped by the central government and the bureaucracy, tying the army and bureaucracy more closely to the central government than to local lords. (For more about Khosrau I's reforms, visit).
Although the Emperor Justinian I (527–565) had paid him a bribe of 440,000 pieces of gold to keep the peace, in 540 Khosrau I broke the "eternal peace" of 532 and invaded Syria, where he sacked the city of Antioch and extorted large sums of money from a number of other cities. Further successes followed: in 541 Lazica defected to the Persian side, and in 542 a major Byzantine offensive in Armenia was defeated at Anglon. A five-year truce agreed in 545 was interrupted in 547 when Lazica again switched sides and eventually expelled its Persian garrison with Byzantine help; the war resumed, but remained confined to Lazica, which was retained by the Byzantines when peace was concluded in 562.
Cavalry
First of all a sentence about the elephants. Yes, we will include them. We have no doubt that they were used by the Sassanids. Anyway. They are extremly rare available, expensive and have an high upkeep. In this case the player is able to hold 2, perhaps 3 units of them - it shouldn't be possible to make an army of them.
The backbone of the Spâh in the Sassanid era was its heavy armoured cavalry. This was made up of noblemen who underwent extensive exercises in warfare and military manoeuvres through military training, gaining discipline and becoming truly elite soldiers.
AoD2 will provide a complete overhauled Sassanian military system of the Savaran. Also the allied troops like Kushans will be included. We don't want give to many informations at this moment because everything is still "under construction". However, it will be an extremly authentic Sassanid conception, worked out by the AoD2-team in the last months!
Shown is also a stressed empire with internal problems. However, a new king of kings will come and the empire will shine again.
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), you can't go wrong. One of the issues that vanilla BI and Rio's Flagellum Dei mod have is that the Persian Empire doesn't have to defend itself in the east as well as the west, which makes the campaign waaaay too easy.
Originally Posted by Pompeius Magnus
